Main Cast: Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland, Patric Knowles, Reginald Owen, Cecil Kellaway
Release Year: 1945
Country: US
Run Time: 103 minutes
Plot
Kitty is the "Pygmalion" legend, 18th century style. London aristocrat Ray Milland takes it upon himself to make a lady of a guttersnipe (Paulette Goddard, complete with a cockney accent not to be believed). Milland and fellow conspirator Constance Collier aren't bothering with the girl out of the goodness of their hearts. They want their protegee to marry a wealthy nobleman (Reginald Owen), then divide the wealth between them. Based on the novel by Rosamund Marshall, Kitty ends with the heroine in the arms of the penitent Milland. The opulent sets and costumes assembled for this film were too good for Paramount to waste; most of them popped up one year later in the Bob Hope vehicle Monsieur Beaucaire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Kitty is among Paulette Goddard's best star vehicles -- somewhat ironic, considering that the American-born Goddard plays an unsophisticated Londoner in the film. Her pseudo-Cockney accent notwithstanding, Goddard fits the role nicely, as does her co-star, Ray Milland, as the caddish nobleman who tries to manipulate her. Movie buffs will enjoy the bevy of fine supporting performances from such character actor favorites as Eric Blore, Mae Clarke, and Snub Pollard. One of the few costume designers to become a film director, Mitchell Leisen lends the film a suitable opulence. One of Paramount's best productions of the 1940s, Kitty is fun to watch, despite (or perhaps because of) its predictable, Pygmalion-like story. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide
Kitty (Goddard) is found working on the streets picking pockets by the painter Thomas Gainsborough (Kellaway) and agrees to sit for a portrait for him. She then attracts the attention of wealthy playboy Sir Hugh Marcy (Milland) who, upon finding out her real social status, uses her for revenge against a former colleague to whom he owes the loss of his job in the foreign office by having Kitty pose as a lady of fashion. What Sir Hugh does not count on is the attraction Kitty develops for him.
Cast
Paulette Goddard as Kitty. To acquire a Cockney accent, Goddard shared a room with the mother of actress Ida Lupino, who had quite a thick one for a time, and learned diction from Constance Collier. Upon seeing this film, the director Jean Renoir decided to cast Goddard in his film The Diary of a Chambermaid.
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